Twelve Paddle The Everglades To Survey Its Health

A flotilla of researchers and volunteers paddled halfway across the state and through much of western Palm Beach County recently to raise awareness of the decline of the Everglades.

The team of 12 kayaked and canoed 78 miles in six days from where the Kissimmee River empties into Lake Okeechobee near the Okeechobee-Glades county line through Martin County and western Palm Beach County through The Acreage and Royal Palm Beach before arriving in the late afternoon of Jan. 7 at the Grassy Waters Preserve in West Palm Beach, but just east of The Acreage. They camped along the way.

"It got down to 30 degrees at one point," said one of the paddlers, 67-year-old kayaker Libby Taylor, of Jacksonville, who usually paddles about 20 miles per day. "There was ice on things when we woke up."

The trip was put on by the nonprofit Arthur R. Marshall Foundation, which champions Everglades restoration, to try to get people interested in restoring the Everglades, said foundation board Chairman John Marshall.

"We wanted to bring big visibility to the plight of the Everglades," John Marshall said.

The paddlers, which also included school teachers and college professors, foundation interns, a photographer, South Florida Water Management District official Susan Sylvester and retired biologist Allen Trefrey, used the trip to survey the health of the Everglades and try to bring publicity to the declining health of the natural system.

"It's not in the healthiest state it's ever been in," Trefrey said of what the researchers found during the trip, saying they spotted lots of birds but few species of other wildlife and a growing number of invasive species like iguanas, Brazilian pepper plants and Australian pine trees.

The group basically followed the path that water takes as it flows from Lake Okeechobee to eventually become drinking water served to West Palm Beach residents. Foundation Executive Director Josette Kaufman said the paddlers collected water samples along the way to measure the quality.

Each day the paddlers used a special camera and laptop they had with them to send a live broadcast to students at six elementary schools throughout the county, such as Pine Jog Elementary School in suburban West Palm Beach, Trefrey said. The idea was to educate the younger generation about restoring the Everglades because the effort required to fix past environmental damage is so massive it will require future generations to continue the work, Marshall said.

The paddle in celebration also opened the Everglades Coalition Conference, an annual gathering of environmentalists focusing on the Everglades. This year was the 25th anniversary of the first Everglades Coalition conference and was held in nearby Palm Beach Gardens, said foundation President Nancy Marshall.